


"There's a rose at his mouth!"

by greedy_dancer



Series: Tumblr ficlets [13]
Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Book/Movie Fusion, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, M/M, Magical Realism, Notfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-06-16
Packaged: 2018-04-04 16:37:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4144914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greedy_dancer/pseuds/greedy_dancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>So you know the pics of Harry with, well, a rose at his mouth? They made me think of a modern “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell” AU where Harry is a less tragic Lady Pole and Nick is the slightly foppish celeb who’s unknowingly an amazingly gifted magician. </i>
</p>
<p>Tumblr not!fic repost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"There's a rose at his mouth!"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isweedan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isweedan/gifts).



So you know the pics of Harry with, well, [a rose at his mouth?](http://greedydancer.tumblr.com/post/121568012183/harry-in-brussels-13-06) They made me think of a modern “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell” AU where Harry is a less tragic Lady Pole & Nick is the slightly foppish celeb who’s unknowingly an amazingly gifted magician (like a Secondus/Strange mashup I guess). 

In this story Harry himself made some kind of ill-advised deal with a powerful Faerie - he found an old book of theoretical magic on his mum's shelf and he thought he’d try to summon a Faerie, because he always thought they sounded awesome from stories. He never thought it would actually work though, but when the Faerie appeared it became immediately smitten with Harry (a feeling we know well) and offered him anything he wanted, and Harry was a foolish teenage boy who thought all the stories about the terrible deals Faeries trick you into were made up to keep kids away from their parents’ books of practical magic, so he asked for like, fame or talent or universal charm. And it worked. In exchange he knows when he reaches the age of like, 45, he’ll have to go live with the faerie and be his consort, but 45 seems an eternity away when you’re a dumb 15 year old.

Also, he’s been cursed so that he can’t ever talk about the reason he’s so fucking successful now, or the fact that it’s Faerie magic. Which sucks because his incredible rise to fame is ALL every interviewer wants to talk about. But every time they ask, Harry just starts mumbling terrible, terrible jokes instead, or talking nonsensically about bread and cats and horses. A lot of people think he’s either a bit slow or high most of the time, but he’s so nice, they still like him sort of despite themselves. 

And so eventually all media people just know not to ask because it’ll ruin their interview. Except, of course, for Nick, the newbie radio host who doesn’t know he can do magic. 

Nick knows something’s weird about Harry pretty much from the first time he sees him on tv - it always seems like Nick’s reception is shit when they show Harry for some reason? Like, there are big pixels around his face? Which is a shame because it’s a very good face and Nick would like to see more of it please.

But then they meet at the GQ dinner and it’s the same in real life, it just seems like Harry’s got a sort of red smudge by his lips? Like he spilled wine or something, and once Nick’s well into his drinks he stops being able to restrain himself and reaches for it and he SWEARS for a split second he sees an actual rose and he’s *this close* to being able to pluck it out of Harry’s mouth. 

“You know you have a rose in your mouth, right hun?” Nick slurs at Harry, and Harry stop laughing and charming everyone and just looks at him with wide serious eyes because Nick is the first person who ever realized something was up with Harry.

And Harry is conflicted because on the one hand, he loves his life so MUCH, he’s afraid if the spell were broken he’d go back to being an unknown working in a bakery. But on the other hand he *is* starting to maybe freak out a little bit about the idiotic deal he agreed to when he was 15. More and more, Harry’s actually looking forward to growing old and watching his kids grow up. He can’t just disappear at 45!

So he keeps hanging out with Nick and trying to talk to him about the curse but it comes all wrong, every time, and Nick just gets this puzzled look on his face. Harry even tries to communicate his predicament to Nick through elaborate Instagrams, but alas, to no avail. 

Meanwhile, Nick is more and more sure something is just really off. The closest he and Harry get, the more the rose seems real, until Nick is convinced something is wrong with himself. Could it be that is has actually, literally *gone mad* for Harry and is manifesting his feelings as a hallucination of a red rose?? Nick’s bad at dating and feelings and stuff, but surely he’s not that far gone, right?

Eventually two things happen: Nick & Harry get together - Nick puts an end to one of Harry’s crazy stories about turtles with his tongue in Harry's mouth - and Nick discovers he is an actual Ye Olde Practical Magician. (Of course, that happens totally by mistake. He’s joking around with some of the crystals in his room and then he sets his bed on fire with his mind. Oops.)

Anyway, *handwaves actual story* Nick comes to terms with his magical abilities and borrows some books from Daisy and goes on the internet and finds the tales about the rose and how it means madness and secrecy - even though Harry doesn’t seem that secretive or crazy.

Okay, well. Maybe a little bit.

So Nick figures it out, and he *actually goes and fights a big scary Faerie for Harry’s honour* like this is the Middle Ages or summat, and he is weakened but he wins, eventually, and then he wakes up with Harry stroking his hair and smiling at him, and Harry’s mouth is beautiful and red and inviting and absolutely crystal-clear rose-free in Nick’s mind, and Harry is released from the spell. His fame slows down a little bit - just enough that it becomes, like, a normal, sustainable amount of fame, but he’s still successful and happy ofc - and he and Nick get to grow old together way past Harry’s 45 birthday, and Nick never buys Harry roses and Harry never mentions that he totally notices when Nick gives himself magical wrinkles reductions, the end. 

*

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://greedydancer.tumblr.com/post/121632339677/theres-a-rose-at-his-mouth) on my Tumblr.


End file.
